Robin’s Pie and Mash is named for the founder of the small chain – June Robins – who opened her first pie and mash shop in Upton Park in 1965, with her husband finding her the best potatoes and parsley.
Although June has now gone to cook eels in the great kitchen in the sky, the family now has five branches in East London, and a ready-meal line stocked by Asda. They pride themselves on being a family business and treating their staff like family too.
Reassuringly tiled and utilitarian as a pie and mash shop should be, Robins’ pies apparently have puff pastry, not short crust (a choice that some find delicious but a tad unorthodox), while bowls of jellied eels are still served, as is parsley liquor (gravy to you and me), ladled out by the mountains of mashed potato. As popular as ever, it’s a bit of history on a plate.
Robin’s Pie and Mash
4 High Street Wanstead
11 2AJ
020 8989 1988
Instagram @robinspieandmash